I dont think i can pick 5,.. because i know i'ma forget a game or 3...

Civ... Hard to decide between them, but the first one set the sage for the rest, alpha centauri, etc.Counter Strike - people still play it... a billion years later... Diablo/Diablo 2 - Read above... Hell it still sells like hotcakes.Warcraft/Starcraft - Hi we evented RTS.... pleased to meet you..Master of orion 2......

They may have refined standard RTS gameplay but I'm pretty sure Dune II and Herzog Zwei both predate the first Warcraft game. And if you take a broader view of the term "real time strategy" (i.e. simply define it as a strategy game that takes place in real time) then you would have to give a nod to 1988's Modem Wars and 1984's "Air Support."

They may have refined standard RTS gameplay but I'm pretty sure Dune II and Herzog Zwei both predate the first Warcraft game. And if you take a broader view of the term "real time strategy" (i.e. simply define it as a strategy game that takes place in real time) then you would have to give a nod to 1988's Modem Wars and 1984's "Air Support."

Definitely correct. I still have fond memories of being ridiculously excited when I built my first Devastator/Sonic tanks as the Harkonnen/Atreides sides in Dune 2. That was the first PC game to ever truly just suck hours and hours out of my life.

Big Jake, personally I took "PC game" simply to mean "personal computer game." For instance, I played Ultima V on the Commodore 64 and it is on my list. I guess it gets grandfathered in because there was an IBM version too, but I'd have picked it anyway.